Circulating Markers of Inflammation Persist in Children and Adults With Giant Aneurysms After Kawasaki Disease.

Background: The sequelae of Kawasaki disease (KD) vary widely with the greatest risk for future cardiovascular events among those who develop giant coronary artery aneurysms (CAA). We sought to define the molecular signature associated with different outcomes in pediatric and adult KD patients.

Methods: Molecular profiling was conducted using mass spectrometry-based shotgun proteomics, transcriptomics, and glycomics methods on 8 pediatric KD patients at the acute, subacute, and convalescent time points.

Heterologous expression of an Entamoeba histolytica chitin synthase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Chitin in the cyst wall of Entamoeba histolytica is made by two chitin synthases (Chs), one of which is unique (EhCHS-1) and one of which resembles those of insects and nematodes (EhCHS-2). EhCHS-1 is deposited chitin in the lateral wall of transformed Saccharomyces cerevisiae Chs mutants, independent of accessory proteins (Chs4p to Chs7p) required by yeast Chs3p.

Chitin synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae in response to supplementation of growth medium with glucosamine and cell wall stress.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae most chitin is synthesized by Chs3p, which deposits chitin in the lateral cell wall and in the bud-neck region during cell division. We have recently found that addition of glucosamine (GlcN) to the growth medium leads to a three- to fourfold increase in cell wall chitin levels. We compared this result to the increases in cellular chitin levels associated with cell wall stress and with treatment of yeast with mating pheromone.

The Caenorhabditis elegans sqv genes and functions of proteoglycans in development.

In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the vulva is a simple tubular structure linking the gonads with the external cuticle. In this review we summarize knowledge of inter- and intracellular signaling during vulval development and of the genes required for vulval invagination. Mutants of one set of these genes, the sqv genes, have a normal number of vulval precursor cells (VPCs) with an unperturbed cell lineage but the invagination space, normally a tube, is either collapsed or absent.

A nonradioactive, high throughput assay for chitin synthase activity.

Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) binds with high affinity and specificity to several sites on chitin polymers. Based on these properties we have modified and adapted a previously patented (U.S.